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2016 Chevrolet Camaro SS Convertible Named 2016 Indy 500 Festival Car

The new 2016 Chevrolet Camaro SS Convertible will serve as the Official Festival Car for the 2016 Indianapolis 500, with 33 examples built for folks involved with the legendary race to drive around town ahead of the running of the race on May 29th.

For decades now, General Motors has been providing the official use vehicles for the Indy 500 Festival and in many cases, those “Festival Cars” were based on the Chevrolet Camaro. These cars are driven around town through April and May each year as a sort of rolling advertisement for the Indy 500 in late May. Although the modern age of instant information has really removed the need for advertising via a few dozen cars driving around the area, the race officials and the companies providing the official pace car have kept up this tradition.

Also, these cars often serve to get the drivers of the race through the Festival Parade, so the 2016 Camaro SS Convertible Festival Cars will likely be used in the parade as well.

2016 Indy 500 Festival Camaro
The Official Festival Car for the 2016 Indianapolis 500 is the all-new 2016 Chevrolet Camaro SS Convertible. These cars are powered by the new LT1 V8 with 455 horsepower and 455lb-ft of torque being shuttled to the rear wheels by means of the quick-shifting 8-speed automatic transmission. Each of the 50 Festival Cars made for the 2016 Indy 500 are painted Hyper Blue with dual white stripes running the length of the body and a black convertible top. There are also large Indy 500 graphics on the doors and smaller Indianapolis Motor Speedway winged graphics on the rear quarter panels.

Finally, each 2016 Camaro SS Convertible Festival Car has a black leather interior with all of the bells and buzzers, as well as each vehicle being numbered out of the run of 50 cars built.

Over the course of the next 8 weeks, officials of the 2016 Indy 500 event will use these cars in the area, but once the race has been run, these specially designed Camaro convertibles will be sent to Chevy dealers around the Indianapolis area – where they will be sold as unique collector’s items.

You can get a closer look at the 2016 Indy 500 Camaro SS Convertible Festival Car in the video below.

No Word on the Official Pace Car
While the Official Pace Car for the 2016 Indy 500 has not been announced, we know that the Festival Cars are always provided by the same brand which provides the pace car. This means that the 2016 Indy 500 Pace Car will almost certainly be a new Chevrolet and with the new ZL1 debuting recently, I would bet that the Official Pace Car will be the new Camaro ZL1 – likely in convertible form.

The 2015 Camaro SS Convertible was the Festival Car for the 2015 Indy 500 while the C7 Corvette Z06 was the Official Pace Car. The Camaro has been the Pace Car several times in the past decade, but never in ZL1 trim. I expect 2016 to be the first time that the supercharged Chevy muscle car will lead the Indy 500 field.